MC action against illegal water, sewer connections soon

Officials of the municipal corporation stated that they are going to initiate a crackdown on illegal water and sewerage connections across the city along with the organising special tax and pending bill collection camps. Additional Commissioner Surinder Singh stated that a separate drive would be carried out to disconnect the illegal connections. He advised that they should take advantage of the opportunity for residents to regularise their unauthorised connections and pay pending property tax without any interest or penalty under the state government’s settlement scheme, valid until July 31.

MC Commissioner Gulpreet Singh Aulakh has announced a series of camps (from June 23 to 30) to be organised in the city zones — North, South, East, and West— where citizens can get their water and sewer connections regularised and clear their outstanding property taxes under relaxed conditions.

As part of this initiative, a camp was on Monday held at Sultanwind village in the South Assembly segment. The camp was supervised by Executive Engineer Manjeet Singh, Assistant Commissioner and Nodal Officer Daljit Singh, Secretary Shushant Bhatia, Property Tax Superintendent Pradeep Kumar, and Water Charges Superintendent Satnam Singh. Local residents turned up to fill out regularisation forms and pay their dues. Each illegal connection was regularised for a fee of Rs 1,650 per case. Attendees were also informed about the importance and benefits of regularising their connections. The MC also collected Rs 3 lakh of property tax returns during the camp.

Additional Commissioner Surinder Singh said pipelines had been laid in peripheral urban areas under projects like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), South East Sewerage Project, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to provide clean drinking water and proper sewage systems. However, many residents tapped into these services without the approval from corporation officials. This not only disrupted billing and recovery processes, but also resulted in substantial financial losses for the civic body.

Amritsar